Advent Approacheth

I know I just posted my list of Thanksgiving books but Advent (the 24 days leading up to the celebration of Christmas) will be up on us very soon. No one should miss Karen Edmisten’s wonderful series for a no-panic Advent.  She has a host of wonderful suggestions to help families enjoy the season rather [...]

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Thanksgiving Books

I looked at my list of favorite Thanksgiving books for kids and realized it was quite short.  I’d love to hear more suggestions!
Here are our favorites:
In November by Cynthia Rylant
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin
Squanto’s Journey by Joseph Bruchac
Over the River and Through the Woods by Lydia Maria Child
Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House [...]

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A Few of Our Favorite Toys

As the holidays approach far more rapidly than I want to admit, toy catalogs are filling the mailbox and talk is turning to wishlists for Santa and the grandparents.  For those of you who’ve also begun pondering holiday gifts for kids, I thought I’d share some of our favorite (as in actually played with often) [...]

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Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! May your day be filled with joy!

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Feast of the Epiphany

We celebrated 12th Night by reading Tomie de Paola’s Three Wise Kings and making Three Kings’ bread which we shared with friends at a late afternoon playdate. The bread turned out soo0oo yummy. I was intimidating by braiding the dough, but it was much easier than I anticipated. In fact, M did most [...]

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Starting the New Year by Doing Nothing

We’ve been doing nothing a lot during these days of winter break and enjoying it immensely.  Of course our nothing is really something, making art, talking to friends, reading, but it’s nothing that would be considered productive or anything to be crossed off a to do list.
We’ve still got our tree up and our decorations [...]

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.  May you rejoice today with family and friends.
M is sleeping uncharacteristically late, especially for Christmas morning.  I’m making coffee and enjoying the last stillness the house will see for many hours.  I have pancake batter ready to go and the presents lie in wait.  I’m anticpating a morning filled with squeals of [...]

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A Morning Inside

We woke up to record cold temps this morning.  When I got out of bed, the thermostat told me it was 9 outside.  The morning of walking around downtown getting cocoa and doing a bit of last minute shopping vanished from my mind.  I decided we would stay right here inside with the heat running [...]

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Vintage Christmas Books

I’m so glad that my parents saved most of my Christmas books. We have several of my books in our holiday book basket, a few of which I’ve already mentioned in our Advent Reading posts. It’s fun to share these memories of my childhood Christmases with my girls. Opening them transports me [...]

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More Advent Reading and Crafting

Library requests of holiday books keep coming in. Here are some of the ones we’ve enjoyed in recent days:
All for the Newborn Baby by Phyllis Root – beautiful artwork showing all of nature adoring the baby Jesus
The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan – a beautiful, moving story of the reawakening of a [...]

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